One of my advisors made an appeal to the National Art Education Association to have a Penn State panel discuss the Sandusky scandal at our 2012 national conference–and guess who will be part of it! I’m very nervous, but excited to share what we’ve accomplished. Here are the details of our session:

DAY: Friday, March 2

TIME: 3:00 – 4:20 PM

CATEGORY, PRESENTATION FORMAT, LOCATION, TITLE, AND DESCRIPTION:

HIGHER EDUCATION

Best Practice Lecture

PRESENTER(S):

Former and Current Penn State Art Education Students and Faculty

Laura March

Yuha Jung

Lillian Lewis

Natalia Pilato

Wanda Knight

B. Stephen Carpenter, II

This session is a conversation with Art Education faculty and students to discuss how and what we, our students and our community, are doing in the shadow of the tragic series of events that resulted from the child molestation scandal at our university. The session is not limited to Penn State alone, but intended to serve as a public space where art education faculty and students from across the nation and internationally can gather for a time of healing and an open discussion about the egregious social injustice that occurred at our university. Within a climate of silence perpetuated by academic, institutional, and corporate strongholds—those who failed to speak up and take action in defense of innocent, powerless children to speak for and defend themselves—Penn State art education refuses to remain without voice. We believe that the spectacle that is now Penn State presents a pedagogical moment and an opportunity to discuss the ways art educators can and must respond. We can only imagine the magnitude of this scandal and other injustices that will emerge. While much of the news media has rendered a negative image of our institution, we believe that it is imperative that the responsible and responsive actions of our students and faculty are shared and discussed within a larger cultural context. A most notable example of such action is the Blue Out—a community wide public event to raise awareness and fight child abuse, which was initiated by one of our graduate students in Art Education. We see in this community action the collective power of public pedagogy in the name of social justice and positive social action, and a first step among many as we begin a process of healing. We invite you to join us.